Mission Accomplised

 

1. The Bibbulmun Track is an Australian Treasure.  It passes through some of the great towns and landscapes of the South West. We acknowledge the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) and the Bibbulmun Track Foundation for their great work. 
2. Walking the track is a life changing experience and the whole 'Bibbulmun Track 1000' team has grown from it.
3. To break the record requires strong team spirit, you need to be cohesive and flexible, which the BT1000 team was Paul & Joy Madden, Garry & Beth Shuttleworth.
4. We thank God for the life changing journey.  It took a lot of prayers and effort to set a new record of 16 days 8 hrs 15 mins from the old record of 16 days 15 hrs 40 mins.
5. We were going to break the record by about a day until severe crippling feet blisters slowed Paul to a snail's pace, but in true grid we managed to hold on and break the record.  It was in this time that the team had to dig the deepest.
6. Reasonable amount of rest and proper nutrition were two vital ingredients necessary to sustain the body to manage such a huge task.  The raw food diet provided by Joy, my wife was an integral part of the success.  It gave me concentrated energy in unprocessed forms and my body was able to quickly process it without it slowing me down during the walking or during my recovery sleeps.
7. Special thanks go to Uwe Thiel of the 'Extreme Walkers' who provided great advice to our BT1000 team.  Paul would like to continue the tradition in that he too would like to provide advice to other challengers.
8. The attempt was very well planned and mainly went to script.  It was just the blisters that stopped a greater record breaking margin.